Very Cinderella

Part Three

Walking in, I saw this place was crowded. From mothers and their babies to teenagers from the ages of 13 to my age. It was unbelievable that a place in the middle of nowhere would get so many customers! I walked through the crowded restaurant and saw the sign on the door stating 'Wanted-Waiters. Inquire Within'. I opened the door and walked down a small corridor. The last door on the end said 'Manager's Office'. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," I heard a man say. I opened the door. The room was small. On the left wall there was a huge plastic cabinet with draws down one side and shelves on the other. Multi-coloured files stood side by side on the shelves along with pots of pencils and other miscellaneous bits and bobs. Random pieces of paper lay all over the floor, scrunched up and stood on. On the right wall was a desk with a big revolving black leather chair. This chair had its back to me, with a man sitting on it. I could just make out his blonde hair.

"Hi, I'm Harlow Cape. I'm here for a job interview," I said nervously, smiling until my face hurt. If they rejected me here, I was going to cry.

The man in the chair turned around to face me. Or I should say boy. He looked about 20, and he was very good-looking. He had big blue eyes and bright blonde hair, almost like it was bleached, without the bad roots. He grinned when he saw me. "Well well well. How's it going Harlow?" he asked, eyeing me up and down. Oh no. Was my outfit too revealing? Was that why everyone turned me down? Or did he think I was a cheap tart? It was only a crop top right? I had the stomach for it. And it wasn't that short. Neither were the shorts.

I forced a grin on my face. "Hi. Um, are you the manager?" He was a little young.

He coughed nervously. "Yes, yes I am the manager. I'm Chace Clark, the manager of 'Popeye's Pizza'. It's a job interview you wanted huh?" he said, spinning the chair so he faced the desk. He started rummaging around in the mess there, looking for something. In the end he gave up. "Let's just do the interview. So how old are you?"

"Eighteen, but I'm nineteen in six months," I replied quickly. Did I look too eager?

"I see," he said, nodding. I resisted saying 'said the blind man' after it. It's an annoying habit Stark got me into. It's stupid, yes, but he taught me when I was thirteen. It's stuck. I winced slightly. It was still hard thinking of Stark.

"And have you had any job experience before?" he asked.

"Not really. I volunteered at my school library for a while, until they kicked me out for showing up late," I babbled, realizing too late that I had said the wrong thing. "Oh, shit! No, I didn't mean that. It's just that...." But he cut me off by, surprisingly, chuckling.

"Its fine, we'll pretend you didn't say that," he said, still chuckling and shaking his head. "So you're eighteen, never had a job and"- he chuckled again- "showed up late for your 'voluntary' job."

"Well, yes," I said, looking at the floor.

Suddenly the door opened and a man of about forty or so walked in. He stopped in his tracks when he saw me, and Chace quickly turned around so he couldn't see his face.

"Oh Chace, please don't tell me you pretended to be manager again" the man whined. Chace coughed and turned back around. My jaw fell to the floor. This guy was faking? And he put my through all that? What the hell?

"Sorry miss, but Chace has a thing for girls, especially pretty ones," the man said sternly, looking at Chace disapprovingly. Chace shrugged and stood up. 

"Sorry Max. I came here to ask you something before I started work and you weren't here. So I sat waiting for you, then this pretty young miss walked in. You know I can't control myself," Chace laughed, squeezing past me and the man, winking at me on the way. I blushed. I actually blushed. What was this guy playing at? Is this man trying to suggest he's a player? And is he the manager? I was so confused right now. More confused than a pig at a bacon party (another one of Stark's stupid sayings). Was I getting the job?